Novels or Short stories??

What do you prefer? A novel or a short story?  As a reader each one has a different preference with varied reasons.  As writers too people are partial to one for their own reasons again. What do I fancy? With no hesitation- NOVELS.

    Loads of people put novels into the category -“too long and too boring” . My take on them is that they aren’t wired to enjoy a journey of imagination. Novels are that. A journey of creation. Well, you could counter me and say “so are short stories”. I grant that. Short stories are creations too. They consume less time to write/read, they are “short and sweet”. Short stories are like power naps. They rejuvenate a bored mind.  Then again, to write a novel! It’s a whole new feeling. A road trip a writer takes, packing beforehand all the necessary items including the characters’ names, the characters’ character, the plot, the drafts on each scene, plus plus. And then the ride begins. Slipping into so many shoes at once and knitting a miracle word by word. When you write a book it becomes you as you become a part of it, stitching each page together to make sense in the end. You get to become so many people, you learn so many things through your own words. Its long, its tiring, its very mental but that’s the whole point! Its exhilarating from the start to the end. And when the last word is penned no one can trade the feeling a writer gets when they complete a work for anything under this universe. It is priceless and you get so high no alcohol will be capable of. That’s a novel! It’s a drug, an escape from hearts/minds turmoil. For me, no short story can give that.  Take reading a good novel. You become a part of its world; you become one of them and live through so many different settings. When you finally come out of it, you have stepped out from a different universe. If you haven’t felt that its time you do.

      Short stories are needed too. It’s not easy to write a short story. It’s a test of mind of what you are capable of. If a novel is a bucket of imagination short story is a bucket of imagination compressed to fit in a mug.  Short story now and then is healthy and an excellent break from hard core novel writing/reading. But then again my vote always goes to novels.

What do you think? Counter me. Novels or short stories?